Dirty Tackle

Manchester United unveiled a statue of Sir Alex Ferguson outside Old Trafford at a ceremony attended by the manager's current squad and many of his past greats. The statue depicts Ferguson with his arms crossed in a defiant pose that would intimidate any referee who might dare to refuse his shouts for a penalty or a dozen extra minutes of stoppage time.

From Reuters:

Artist Philip Jackson, who was also responsible for another Old Trafford statue portraying former manager Matt Busby as well as the United Trinity piece featuring Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law, resisted the temptation to capture Ferguson berating a referee, chewing gum or looking at his watch.

"I've tried to portray him as a man of great determination and as a thinking man, but also with humour which he has in abundance, so there's just a slight smile in the corner of his mouth. That's really what I wanted to portray," Jackson said.

Yes, nothing says "humor in abundance" like a slight smirk in the corner of the mouth while the rest of the body shouts "if I was 20 years younger, I would've curbed you already."

At the ceremony, the non-statue version of Alex Ferguson took this opportunity to play his famous mind games with death itself.

"Normally people die before they have a statue. I'm outliving death," he said at the unveiling which drew a crowd of 2,500 to the stadium.

Here are some of the reactions to the statue from the assembled crowd below it...

(Getty)

Ryan Giggs: "If my brother married that statue, I would totally sleep with it."